Title: A Pirate, a Blockade Runner, and a Cat
Genre: Paranormal
Author: Beverly Stowe McClure
Publisher:
MuseItUp Publishing
Purchase on Amazon
Just when
Erik thinks life can’t get any worse, while hanging out at the beach one
evening, he and the twins notice lights radiating from the lighthouse. Stranger
still, a ship materializes in the moonlit harbor. Curious, the twins and a
reluctant Erik investigate and discover the ghost of a blockade runner, a cat,
and a pirate who prowls Charleston Harbor, and the fun begins.
Chapter One
It’s funny how a
split second can change a guy’s life. One week, I’m living in Texas with Mom
and Dad. I’m the star pitcher on the Pirates baseball team, and I’m trying to figure
out what to say to make Diana, the blonde in history class, notice me.
The
next week, I’m in South Carolina, a thousand miles from Texas. No Dad. No
baseball team. No Diana. Just Mom and me, now living with Aunt Molly. Oh, and
Starry and Stormy Knight, the weird twins who live down the street.
So
here I am, a thirteen-year-old kid ripped from my friends and my life, sitting
in the sand on Folly Beach, a short distance from Aunt Molly’s house, watching
the sky grow dark, the waves building, and wondering where it all went wrong.
I’m not alone for long. As always, they find me.
“Hey,
Ek. How’s it?”
Stormy
plopped down beside me, stirring up sand. My nose twitched. I sneezed. What
kind of talk was “How’s it?” And who was “Ek”?
His
sister, Starry, settled on my other side. I was surrounded, no chance to
escape, short of jumping into the ocean.
“Have
you seen the lights?” Star asked.
On
the day we met she told me to call her Star or Starry. Either way she was from
outer space. I glanced over my shoulder at the football field length of tall grass
separating the beach from the nearest houses.
“You
mean those?” I pointed at the hazy glow around a street lamp. “What’s the big
deal?”
“Not
those. Over there.” Star tipped her head in the direction of the water. “Look.”
“I’m
looking. I’m looking.” Why was she so excited? All I saw was a faint beam of
light floating across the inlet. “So? It’s a reflection of the moon.”
Star
shook her head. “No moon tonight.”
She
was right. Yet stars (the heavenly kind, not the girl) glittered between the layers
of gathering clouds. “Okay, it’s only the starlight.”
“The
light comes from the lighthouse,” Star said.
“You
can see it blink on and off,” Storm added.
Morris
Island Lighthouse stood several hundred yards into the water.
According to
Mom, who was big on history, the water was land during the Civil War. Over the
years the sea had eroded the shore and water now surrounded the lighthouse. I
couldn’t deny the yellow glow flowing from the top of the building. I couldn’t
explain it either.
“Impossible.
Mom said the lighthouse has been out of commission for years. The lantern was
removed. Sullivan’s Island Lighthouse across Charleston Harbor replaced it.”
“Then
tell us what it is, Erik,” Star said. “You see it. Storm and I see it. This isn’t
the first time, either. On cloudy, rainy nights the light flashes on.”
“It’s
not raining,” I said.
“It
is raining.”
Star
had barely said the words when a gust of wind whipped across the beach. Sand
spiraled like a Texas dust devil. Something wet slapped me on the nose. Several
somethings wet—raindrops. The space girl predicted the weather. So what? Dark
clouds usually brought rain. “Yeah, it’s raining.” Under my breath I mumbled,
“And I’m getting wet.” In a lame attempt to pep me up about my new home, Mom
had promised many adventures waited for me in Charleston. Adventures? Yeah. If
you called ocean waves slurping against the shore and neighbors with two grains
of sand each for brains adventures, I was up to my wet nose in adventures.
The
twins stared into the gloomy night, watching the light fading into a dim sliver.
The
rain seeped into my T-shirt, gluing it to my skin. Lightning raced across the
sky. I shivered. I’d had enough. I shook Stormy’s shoulder. He kept his eyes
focused across the inlet. Star didn’t budge. They could drown if they wanted. I
was outta there. I jumped to my feet, turned, and took one step, before Star
snagged my ankle.
“Wait.
Where are you going?”
“Home,
before I turn into a duck with webbed feet,” I yelled above the
whistling wind
and growling thunder.
She
freed my ankle and stood. Raindrops plastered her carrot-red hair against her
face. “Besides the light, we’ve seen a ship, Erik. It always comes during bad weather.”
Stormy
sprang up. “We think someone in the lighthouse is warning the ships.”
“Who?
How? They can’t.”
“The proof is
before us.” Star twisted her mouth, the way she did when she was thinking. “We
have a theory.”
They
always did. Since I was sopping wet already, and the rain showed no sign of
letting up anytime soon, I wasn’t interested. “Stay here if you want. I’m
opposed to drowning.”
I
loped off, but not before I caught a glimpse of a shape in the water that vaguely
resembled a ship. I paused. Either I was hallucinating or something was out
there. Curious, I trudged back, raindrops dripping from my hair down onto my chin.
The water had calmed. The dark crept in. The inlet was empty. “Where is it?”
“Vanished,
the way it always does.” Lightning flashed, revealing Star’s eyes, wide and
troubled. “Tomorrow, I’m going to the lighthouse and investigate.”
I
swiped the rain off my face. “What do you expect to find?”
“You
know, Erik. Your mind dreams tell me so. See you tomorrow.” She sprinted away.
I
raised an eyebrow at Storm. “My mind dreams?”
He
shook his head. “She knows your every thought, Ek. She calls them mind dreams.”
“You’re
kidding me?”
“Nope.”
“Lights.
Ships. Mind dreams. I don’t believe it,” I muttered as the rain tumbled around
me.
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